3-Year-Old Boy Catches Fire When Mom’s E-Cigarette Explodes

Kinzie Barlow’s (pictured at left) 3-year-old boy, Khonor (torso pictured), is lucky to be alive after her exploding electronic cigarette set his car seat on fire, which left the child with first- and- second-degree burns throughout his body, according to Fox 13 News.

The Provo, Utah, Mom told Fox 13 she was driving along a road on Friday when she began noticing an offensive odor in the car. After a loud bang, Barlow reportedly saw a flash of light and the vehicle’s cabin filled with smoke.

According to Barlow, after her e-cigarette literally exploded in her car’s charger, a white-hot copper coil ricocheted off the ceiling and wound up in Khonor’s car seat.

Barlow told Fox 13 that the e-cigarette’s coil actually burned through the car seat’s fabric and even melted the hard plastic that surrounded it.

The flames that reportedly shot out from the heated coil made contact with the toddler’s torso. Barlow told Fox 13, “He was screaming and saying, ‘Mom, get me! Get me!”

The frantic Mom tried extinguishing the out-of-control flames with her shirt sleeves, but they were useless because they, too, caught fire. Barlow then grabbed some iced coffee, which was in her cup holder, and doused her baby with it, finally putting out the flames. “I was shaking by the time it was all over and done with,” Barlow told Fox 13.

Watch news coverage of the e-cigarette incident here:

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Provo’s Fire Marshal Lynn Schofield, believes that Barlow’s e-cigarette did explode because she had witnessed episodes like this before, stating, “[The charging e-cigarette] was attended. It was a catastrophic failure of the device,” Schofield said. “And fortunately only minor burns, but painful burns. This is the second time it’s happened in Provo,” Schofield said. “This is the first time we’ve had an injury.”

Schofield, who suspects that the device was faulty, reported the incident to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission on Monday, with the inspector even adding that Barlow had been using the appropriate charger for the electronic cigarette and not an after-market charger.

Barlow told Fox 13 that had she known about the potential dangers of the electronic smoking cessation device, she would never would have purchased it and will never buy one again.

Meanwhile, Khonor, who was in “remarkably good spirits” a day after the incident, talked about the burns he sustained on his elbows, back, and buttock, saying that while the burns hurt, he will, according to his mom, be just fine.